Clinical applications of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) rely on their capacity to home and engraft in the appropriate target injury tissues for the long term. However, their homing efficiency has been observed to be very poor because of the lack or modifications of homing factors SDF-1α and CXCR4 receptors. Hence, this study was designed to investigate the homing and retention of pretreated human adipose tissue-derived MSCs (hASCs) from three different delivery routes in response to SDF-1α, released from chitosan-based injectable hydrogels. After stimulation of ASCs with a hypoxia mimicking agent, the expression level and functionality of CXCR4 were analyzed by flowcytometric analysis (FACS), transwell migration assay and qPCR. Then, the homing/retention of pretreated DiI-labeled hASCs were compared through three different in vivo delivery routes, 2 weeks after transplantation in Wistar rats. The cells were tracked histologically by fluorescent microscope and by PCR for human-specific CXCR4 gene. Results showed CXCR4 has dynamic expression pattern and pretreatment of hASCs significantly up-regulates CXCR4, leading to an increase in migration capacity toward 100 ng/mL SDF-1α in vitro and homing into the subcutaneously implanted hydrogel releasing SDF-1α in vivo. Furthermore, it seems that SDF-1α is particularly important in the retention of ASCs, in addition to its chemoattraction role. In summary, the delivery route in which the ASCs were mixed with the hydrogel rather than systemic delivery and local injection and preconditioning undertaken to increase CXCR4 expression concomitant with SDF-1α delivery by the injectable hydrogel, allowed for further homing/retention of ASCs. This might be a promising way to get better therapeutic outcomes in stem cell therapy.

Nowadays composite scaffolds based on synthetic and natural biomaterials have got attention to increase healing of non-union bone fractures. To this end, different aspects of collagen sponge incorporated with poly(glycolic acid) (PGA) fiber were investigated in this study. Collagen solution (6.33 mg/mL) with PGA fibers (collagen/fiber ratio [w/w]: 4.22, 2.11, 1.06, 0.52) was freeze-dried, followed by dehydrothermal cross-linking to obtain collagen sponge incorporating PGA fibers. Properties of scaffold for cell viability, proliferation, and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy showed that collagen sponge exhibited an interconnected pore structure with an average pore size of 190 μm, irrespective of PGA fiber incorporation. The collagen-PGA sponge was superior to the original collagen sponge in terms of the initial attachment, proliferation rate, and osteogenic differentiation of the bone marrow-MSCs (BM-MSC). The shrinkage of sponges during cell culture was significantly suppressed by fiber incorporation. Incorporation of PGA fiber is a simple and promising way to reinforce collagen sponge without impairing biocompatibility. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 2020-2028, 2016.

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Mimicking the structure of extracellular matrix (ECM) of myocardium is necessary for fabrication of functional cardiac tissue. The superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs, Fe3O4), as new generation of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs), are highly intended in biomedical studies. Here, SPION NPs (1 wt%) were synthesized and incorporated into silk‐fibroin (SF) electrospun nanofibers to enhance mechanical properties and topography of the scaffolds. Then, the mouse embryonic cardiac cells (ECCs) were seeded on the scaffolds for in vitro studies. The SPION NPs were studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscope (TEM). SF nanofibers were characterized after incorporation of SPIONs by SEM, TEM, water contact angle measurement, and tensile test. Furthermore, cytocompatibility of scaffolds was confirmed by 3‐(4, 5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. SEM images showed that ECCs attached to the scaffolds with elongated morphologies. Also, the real‐time PCR and immunostaining studies approved upregulation of cardiac functional genes in ECCs seeded on the SF/SPION‐casein scaffolds including GATA‐4, cardiac troponin T, Nkx 2.5, and alpha‐myosin heavy chain, compared with the ones in SF. In conclusion, incorporation of core‐shells in SF supports cardiac differentiation, while has no negative impact on ECCs' proliferation and self‐renewal capacity.